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Gendered World Views (Winter 2017, section 11)

About this class

Pink is for girls and blue is for boys, or at least that's what many of us were taught as children. But what are these stereotypes really telling us? Assumptions like these force men and women into specific roles, and from a very young age, we socialize boys to be aggressive and girls to be nice – we then assign an aesthetic to each group that reflects this. But how do real people deal with these expectations? What does it mean to see the world through gendered terms?

This course will introduce students to the patriarchal world view that created the gendered stereotypes we live with today and the ways in which gendered assumptions structure society. We will then focus on the challenges that have been raised by the feminist world view and explore how women deal with gender inequality. The second half of the course will be largely dedicated to masculinity studies and feminist observations regarding how the patriarchal world viewhurts men as well. Finally, we will end with a brief look at what queer theory has to say about gender. Students will be asked to reflect on their own world views and how gendered ideas have effected their lives. A participation grade will be assigned.

For years’ women have been represented in one way, the looks may vary, but themessage remains the same, “Women will not be desirable to, or loved by men unless they are physically perfect.” (Cortes 10)
Through every medium; entertainment, sports and even foodwomen are fed messages on what they must look, how they must dress and how to pleasemen. The ultimate representation of these messages is

Carl’s Jr. is an American fast food chain known for its controversial commercials that objectify women in order to sell its products. In this particular ad, the now very famous model Charlotte McKinney walks around in a food market completely nude; flaunting her gorgeous and “perfect” body while all the men at the market stare at her. At the end of the ad [the image inserted above], the blonde bombshell wears very little clothing, accentuating her cleavage while holding an abnormally large hamburger in her hand and then takes a big bite out of it.

Carl’s Jr. is an American fast food chain known for its controversial commercials that objectify women in order to sell its products. In this particular ad, the now very famous model Charlotte McKinney walks around in a food market completely nude; flaunting her gorgeous and “perfect” body while all the men at the market stare at her. At the end of the ad [the image inserted above], the blonde bombshell wears very little clothing, accentuating her cleavage while holding an abnormally large hamburger in her hand and then takes a big bite out of it.

The Suit Supply company has been known for many of its controversial ads, here I will only be discussing three of which I found to be more degrading towards women. The goal of these ads from the company is to advertise their product which are suits. In all three images, we do see a well-dressed man (or two) but the problem is how the female companion is portrayed.

Sex sells, and it’s no secret that advertisers take advantage of this fact. After just a look at the advertisements for some of today’s most popular brands, one can almost effortlessly conclude that a large number of them use sexual images to grasp their viewers’ attention. However, this is not the only conclusion one can draw from observing these ads, the other being that many of them sexually objectify the female figure featured in them.

In this advertisement, one can see two children modeling Gap Kids clothing. Though this ad is not the typical ad used when analyzing the sexism that can be found in advertisements, this is a gross example of how the sexism of society does not only exist when looking at ads targeted to adults but also to ads targeted at young children. There are many reasons as to why this ad is problematic. Those reasons are detrimental to societal views of women and will continue the cycle of women being objects and lesser than men.

This advertisement for men’s suits is a part of the 2016 marketing campaign by the Amsterdam-based company Suitsupply. The images from this campaign feature oversized and underdressed women accompanied by tiny men wearing the company’s line of suits. The company has been criticized before for promoting sexist ideals and the objectification of women, however, this time the company’s CEO, Fokke de Jong, defended the images by claiming that they were “sexist towards men” since they objectified the male models (Moss).

In this miu miu Spring 2015 advertisement which is already banned in UK, a young thin female model in a beautiful cloth carrying a miu miu bag is lying on the bed in a small room. This model looks like a little girl.Her pretty clothes and shoes are both with bowknots. It makes her looks similar to a doll. The sight of the photographer seems look through a door to this girl. Moreover, rather than opening wide, the door is more likely to be opened furtively because the bright part which the model occupies is only the half of the image.

About 10 years ago, Dove launched its Campaign for Real Beauty that featured a woman’s unique differences in using models of various body types and races. Introduced in 2004, the advertising campaign was a response to the fact that globally only 2% of women truly believed that they were beautiful (Celebre, Delton, Guadagno, & Wal 2014). Thus, Dove aimed to promote the notion that a woman’s body should be celebrated for its real curves and colors rather than be made a source of anxiety and lack of confidence.

This is a very enlightening post! I never thought to consider the roots of homophobia until you mentioned them. I agree that to really fight against homophobia theres is a lot of change needed to be had on a larger scale. It should also be considered that this society is heavily functioned from patriarchal world view. Going back a few hundreds of years ago, people were taught how a male and a female’s life should be. As you mentioned some societies became more liberal, they have more freedom of speech therefore people were more open to homosexuality. There is still a lot of homophobia which stems from the patriarchal world view, men are constantly being policed for not conforming to the “man box” and women as well are scrutinized for not sticking to the patriarchal script. Here’s an interesting article that discusses further on the topic of homophobia in relation to religion, patriarchy and heterosexism. It brings very interesting points related to women and mens homosexuality, because if they don’t consider themselves cisgender they completely reject the whole concept of patriarchy.

I find this article can be strongly related to the rape culture. The articles shows different cases of misconduct about women in Canadian courts. Rape culture links rape and sexual violence to the society. I realize that men in our society don’t pay much attention to the rape problems. I feel angry to see the judge said to a victim of sexual violence: “ why don't you keep your knees together?” They even try to shirk the cause of sexual assault to women. It reminds me that the Second-Wave Feminists were right about arguing that rape culture is real. Women usually face different kinds of violence and racism against them, and they often experience inequality when they fight for their rights. People should encourage women to speak out and give attention to the women who have been through unfair judgement. The writer volunteers in the women’s center of Montreal. She wants to give help to those women who are alone when they seek for the rights due them. I go along with her actions since it will rise more attention on women victims in the society. The actions can be related to feminism also because it helps strive for women rights.

Very Interesting point of view and analyses. I agree with the fact that the web holds a lot of different issues regarding every internet user’s privacy. The government unfortunately overtook some parts of the web and appropriated the internet s something they could use to discover what people seek for, which can be also called espionage. By increasing surveillance, the government is basically destructing people’s privacy and their freedom of speech.
A better understanding of this problem will be see with the approach of a gender perspective, where the use of censorship would have helped. The hashtag #Gamergate is one of the best example where censorship helped thousands of feminist in the video game world to overcome the hate they were receiving all over the world trough the internet. The hashtag was created to support and defend, those ones that were trying to give personal reviews on video game ethical concernings. The hashtag problematic was often seen in the feminist socials groups of the internet world.
By looking at this issue from a gender perspective, Internet privacy would definitely be better for some groups of users that like to have the right for freedom of speech although monitoring the surveillance of the web can be helpful to stop the bigger problem of the internet which the online harassment that can go up to cause death for the ones bullied. The government should find a balance in between to make the web a healthier and safer place for its users.
To give more information to your reading, the link posted is about the topic of #Gamergatehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamergate_controversy
• https://techcrunch.com/2014/09/25/gamergate-an-issue-with-2-sides/

First I would like to say that this is a great and important topic that you chose! I agree that it does not receive enough attention considering the number of people that suffer everyday from it.
I would like to suggest that by looking through a gendered lens as well it might help to explain and give a different perspective on why some people suffer from different mental illnesses and what could have caused it in the first place. If looking specifically at men, we see that society requires them to engage in stoicism, being reasoned, calm, and not showing any emotion or passion what so ever since it is classified as feminine and weak and they are taught to be tough, self-reliant, and to manage and hide their pain. The problem with this is that 1) men too are affected from the expectations set by society which requires them to conform to hegemonic masculinity and 2) expecting them to be stoic during this whole process can be demanding to their emotional health as well as their physical health. Stoicism might be the driving force behind a variety of destructive male behavior as well.
Therefore we can see that some cases of men suffering from anxiety, depression and many other mental disorders can be derived back to stoicism. Men are less likely to seek help causing the problem to go unresolved and can even worsen.
Once again I like that you brought up this topic and I hope this gendered perspective helped explain why some men suffer from mental disorders!

In all forms of entertainment, men seems to be linked with violence as they should always be carrying this trait. I find it very interesting to address this problem using a movie that most of us know as example, and making others realize how bizarre it is. In fact, in this movie as well as a lot of other ones, there is only one kind of masculinity which is celebrated-- what you referred as “hyper-masculinity”, and I will refer to it with the term hegemonic masculinity, which promotes male dominance. Hegemonic masculinity from a patriarchal world view is the image that all men should try to embody; it is basically an individual respecting all criterion from the man box (which are terms such as strength, virility, stoicism, everything which patriarchal world view promotes and sets this unrealistic ad even racist ideal image of a man). Do you know what promoting this kind of masculinity can even be “toxic” and cause real harm to male gendered people? Have you noticed that “be a man!” is something often said to to (especially) a young boy? Even nowadays when society is “becoming very acceptable”, parents, coachs, teachers and even friends are still policing men to fit into an image of masculinity. This phenomenon is the reason behind the high rates of suicide of young compared to women, and a reason why most violence cases are committed by men. Unable to achieve this image, they turn to “violence”, which is also a term in the man box. This whole concept is called toxic masculinity, and here’s an article about the suicide rate for men if you are interested: http://www.bcmj.org/articles/silent-epidemic-male-suicide .

Great post! I enjoyed reading and I agree with your opinions on censorship. It is scary to think that there are forms of extreme censorship where people’s freedom of expression is restricted. We as a society are meant to move forward as a whole, not backwards by limiting people's opinions. I believe publicizing and revealing the identity of illegal site users will partially be benefitting but will not eliminate illegal online activity as a whole. Individuals who are involved with these sites will continuously find another route to attain what they want.
From a gendered perspective, feminism today, seems to be largely connected by technology and social media. The internet has become a space for social activism and an important outlet in bringing gender equality and social justice issues to light. Although the internet has served in the increase exposure and acceptance of feminism, women repeatedly experience online hate, threat and harassment by not only men but women as well. For example, online feminists will subject “non stereotypical” feminists to hate and online criticism. Additionally, the #gamergate movement has wrongly targeted women such as Zoe Quinn and Anita Sarkeesian for gaining popularity in a male dominant industry. Gamergate followers victimized these women by doxing, (the exposure of private information online), sending rape threats and death threats. It is a misogynistic movement where members perceive successful women as an attack to a dominantly patriarchal field. Censorship of privacy in the situation of Sarkeesian and Quinn would therefore be beneficial for the protection of women. But, the underlying reason why women need this additional protection is because of the patriarchal lens some individuals are confined to. The sexist ideology that women are secondary to men therefore needs to be changed in order for privacy protection to be a success.

First things first, the choice of your tittle really caught my attention considering this is a whole new and interesting subject for me. Before reading this text, I had never heard of genetic engineering before. The structure of your essay and all the sources you used to conduct it really made it easy for me to understand the essence of this topic and your ethical view regarding the genetic modification of human beings. While considering the benefits from this subject, I still disagree about the fact that this genetic manipulation can do more good than bad. In fact, this whole process of manipulating and modifying human being is expensive:
“Actually implanting and developing an embryo from there would be even more expensive” (Loria). Putting aside the price subject and seeing this manipulation through gendered world view lens, we can also observe that it adds more pressure on men and women’s view of the ideal body. Since some people are able to change their appearance in order to feel better about themselves, viewing these people will make others desire this “perfect” image and put more pressure on themselves to look like them.

Moreover, the fact that not everyone can have access to this technology will affect an enormous amount of men. There are four tropes related to hegemonic masculinity: Violence, Sexuality, Power and Stoicism. This same hegemonic masculinity requires men to hold power. The financial freedom a man has is often correlated with the power he holds. Consequently, the inability to afford this genetic manipulation can lead some men to feel or consider themselves not powerful enough. This phenomenon can further lead a fair amount of men to low self-esteem and depression. In conclusion, not only will this process influence some men and women to put more pressure on themselves, it will also put men who can’t afford it in a much deeper devaluation of themselves.

Your article on mainstream marketing and advertising is certainly an interesting one. It was especially compelling when you discussed the problems with a marketer’s willful ignorance of accepted ethics and morals. I am in accordance with your belief that tricking and misleading innocent consumers to turn a profit is objectionable behavior.
Yet, I do believe that analyzing the issue of marketing through a gendered lens will enhance your already compelling examples and arguments. To effectively incorporate gender into your article, you must understand the distinction between gender and sex. Sex is your biological designation as either male, female or intersex. Gender, conversely, is a social construct, an idea that was artificially created by humans, that dictates how members of a certain sex are supposed to behave. Ultimately, gender is a performance.
Unfortunately, in contemporary society, most forms of media, advertisements included, propagate concealed or overt messages about the performance of gender. The portrayal of men in advertisements present themes of dominance, virility, and stoicism, while the portrayal of women evokes motifs of submission and sexuality. These persistent messages influence men and women in a major way. Specifically, advertisements often promote rape culture, a society that trivializes the act of rape, by objectifying women and normalizing violence against women.
I strongly encourage you to strengthen the examples provided in your article by touching on problematic advertisements with gendered messages. You will find them in abundance with a quick Google search. Furthermore, I implore you to discuss the promotion of rape culture in modern marketing as it directly overlaps with the subject matter that your article focuses on. You touch on “before and after” pictures, a perfect opportunity to discuss the objectification and hyper-sexualization of women. Before potentially revising your article, I strongly recommend that you further research gender issues and rape culture. I have linked below a few articles to get you started and I hope that you branch out from there.

Hi. Your article is very informative and it brings attention to the serious problem of unemployment and its impact on society. However, I think it could lead to a deeper analysis of the problem if we consider the role of gender with this problem.

For example, you mentioned the psychological impact that unemployment has on an individual. Of course both genders would be affected. However, it might be more serious for men considering their masculinity depends on financial wealth and success. The man-box of the patriarchal world view polices men into being successful and rich and when this criterion isn't met, they are policed and criticized. For further information on men and masculinity you can visit this site: http://www.wps.colostate.edu/men-and-masculinities

Another point that the gendered world views brings up is the issue of women's expected role in society. Women are expected to be the house-wives who take care of the children. So they tend to have more difficulties in obtaining a job because they are expected to quit once they have children. Even once they are professionally engaged, when they have children they are forced to choose between either their children or their professional career. This phenomenon is called the "Mommy Track." The rates of unemployment are much bigger in women due to this issue. For further information on mommy track you can visit this site: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mommy_track

Your article is very well written and pertinently addresses the disturbing reality that random shootings are on the rise and have become part of the American culture in today’s society as suggested by your expert criminologist. Even more disturbing is how American society has become complacent and accepts this uncontrollable violence as normal. While I am an avid supporter of increasing social programs that target health care and job insurance, I disagree with your rationale that this will solve the rampant violence. I believe that discussing the concept of violent masculinity and socialization of boys in today’s society will provide insight into why 80.4% of perpetrators arrested for these horrendous, violent crimes are men (US Dept. of Justice). The Patriarchal worldview stresses that men are to be: dominant, powerful, and virile and must embody these attributes in order to be considered “real men”, we see this message in films, violent video games, and advertising. Men, of all ages, perform this duty by conformance to the guidelines of the “man box” which outlines the four tropes of hegemonic masculinity: violence, power, sexuality and stoicism. This modern masculinity encourages men to be violent (in actions and words) not only towards women (seen as sexual objects) but towards “weaker members” of society in their quest to claw their way towards success. This male socialization begins at a very young age “Be a man”, “Big boys don’t cry”; this message teaches boys that showing emotion is considered feminine and weak and should be avoided otherwise their masculinity will be questioned. It should be no surprise that this socialization leads boys to becoming men that are emotionally inept and violent. As a society we must steer away from this hegemonic masculinity through education. Exposing the destructive consequences of the “man box” will encourage men to express their vulnerabilities without social stigma, before these men reach their breaking point and define themselves through violent crimes.